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Moving house can be a stressful experience and there's a mountain of MoneySaving tasks to scale, from switching utility suppliers to changing addresses and updating the electoral register. Missing things can majorly affect your financial health so we'd like to hear MoneySavers' tips on how you've made the process smoother.

The past two house moves have been a nightmare. This time I've been given a year to declutter as we are downsizing. I'm making a fortune on eBay but it's only having a limited impact space-wise. I must get more ruthless or we'll be spending a fortune on removals including stuff still in boxes from the last house move (10 years ago!)

An OS tip I learned from my parents: Measure existing curtains and carpets carefully, they may well fit the 'new' house.
Last time we moved I was able to shorten two pairs of curtains, re-hang several others and had three carpets cut to fit the new rooms. This meant that we didn't have to rush out & buy straight away.

Sounds obvious to have a survey done. We really thought we had had a full survey on our 80 year old house, before we bought it, but it turned out that the building society giving us our mortgage had made a mistake and ticked the box for the Home Buyer's Survey only (the cheaper one).

This meant that our survey did not include comments about woodworm and rewiring (to mention the 2 biggest issues). If we had realised in time, we would have dropped our offer price. Sadly we did not, and assumed everything was OK because the BS told us the survey was fine........we found out a few days before completion, and arranged our own full survey, but by then of course we couldn't change the price.

Their little mistake cost us several thousand pounds. I wonder if we should have sued them....we were feeling too exhausted to be savvy at the time.

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my daughter has just left home for the first time and needed everything,we joined a local internet group called freecycle,she has now nearly kitted out her flat and best of all for free.what a brilliant idea,less land fill ,and helping those who need it.

my daughter has just left home for the first time and needed everything,we joined a local internet group called freecycle,she has now nearly kitted out her flat and best of all for free.what a brilliant idea,less land fill ,and helping those who need it.

ALSO if you have stuff to get rid of at the last minute OFFER it on freecycle and usually someone will take it within 24 hours. You do have to check your emails and arrange a time with the taker.
By the way if you cannot find freecycle look under yahoo groups. It's gr8

If you are going for a DIY move as we always do:-
1) Tell all your family + friends - we had 15 people turn up to help on the day and others who helped before and after. Another friend brought round lunch for them all!
2) Start packing early.
3) Small boxes which can fit back in your cupboards are best then you won't be tripping over them AND they won't be so heavy.
4) Books are fine in carrier bags (doubled up)
5) Use glossy magazines for wrapping delicate stuff and crockery then if you are like me you won't feel the need to wash it all at the other end.
6) Freecycle or Ebay stuff you won't be needing.
7) Start early with an organized list of who to contact and maybe print off some "Change of Address" letters.

My biggest tip for the day of the move is to make sure you have a box with stuff you will need last & first in it. i.e. food stuff (kettle, teabags, coffee, milk, juice, snacks, mugs, plates, cutlery & takeaway menu), your bed (or somethign to sleep on...last thing to pack and should be the first thing you unpack so at the end of the day you can crash out) & a radio (or something to listen to while unpacking)... That covers the basics for day one!

Separate out the kettle, mugs, tea/coffee/softdrinks and maybe some biscuits into a separate bag/box and make sure that is packed last or at least easily accessible. You'll need it at the other end, or if using removal men they'll immediately want a cuppa on arrival!

For the cost of £3 a tesco value kettle is a decent backup option if you're DIY moving and doing several car loads between houses so need to leave the kettle available at the old house!

Buy a roll of masking tape or similar before you move, as you will undoubtedly pick up a piece of furniture at some point on which the drawers/doors will open while you're carrying it. Masking tape them shut before you lift it!

Here is one that i found on another thread that I found rather helpful.

'I gave the new owners a few sheets of Avery labels pre-printed with our new address to forward anything that fell "between the cracks" during the Royal Mail redirection. There was a surprising amount, as we'd forgotten to change all our magazine subscriptions. Also useful because you will get birthday cards and Christmas cards from people you don't often hear from long after you've moved and stopped the Royal Mail service. We could have just left our address, but the pre-printed labels hopefully made it really quick and easy .

I had the hoover and a box of cleaning products alongside the usual box of moving essentials (tea, kettle, mugs, loo paper, lightbulbs, dinner for the first night and so on) along with me in the car. It meant I could give the new place a quick once-over before all the heavy furniture was set down.

I boxed up our most precious sentimental things and gave them to a friend for safekeeping so they didn't get broken or go missing in the chaos of the move.

I wish I'd remembered to change my Amazon delivery details on one-click. My new parcels were delivered to my old address, duh. This was nearly as bad as my friend who moved from Liverpool to London and then realised she'd left her drycleaning behind, still in the shop!

I wish I'd packed a few complete changes of clothes so things weren't such a scramble the first few days, before I got the wardrobes sorted. If you were moving at this time of year, extra clothes for unseasonal weather might also be useful. '

You probably spent ages deciding what height to position pictures, mirrors, wall lights, wall-mounted furniture, etc. Make notes for when you hang them in the new house.

Also, even if you're using professional removers, pack small things yourself into boxes (boxes that the removers can pack into bigger crates). Number the boxes and make an inventory, to make it easier to find things when you unpack.

Sounds obvious to have a survey done. We really thought we had had a full survey on our 80 year old house, before we bought it, but it turned out that the building society giving us our mortgage had made a mistake and ticked the box for the Home Buyer's Survey only (the cheaper one).

Yes, but you may well do better to commission a separate survey than rely on your mortgage valuer. Get quotes from several surveyors local to the property and seek references.

Also, if you can, accompany the surveyor and chat to him/her. You'll pick up all sorts of gems that they'll be happy to say in conversation but not put in a report.

In fact, if there's nothing much wrong with the house, they'll probably agree to reduce their fee substantially if you decide you don't want a written report. One caution on that option, though - you'll have difficulty getting any compensation out of them, if it turns out they missed something.

The past two house moves have been a nightmare. This time I've been given a year to declutter as we are downsizing. I'm making a fortune on eBay but it's only having a limited impact space-wise. I must get more ruthless or we'll be spending a fortune on removals including stuff still in boxes from the last house move (10 years ago!)

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